- Government of Botswana announces new public-private partnership to treat children with cancer and blood disorders
- The $100 million initiative to create a pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network and care infrastructure is supported by $50 million donation from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and matched by $50 million in additional philanthropy
- Partnership includes Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital and the Governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi
His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian
Khama of the Republic of Botswana, the Honorable Minister Dorcas Makgato
of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Foundation, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers
(TXCH) and Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS
Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI) through public-private
partnerships with the governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi,
announced a $100 million initiative to create an innovative pediatric
hematology-oncology treatment network in southern and east Africa. The
comprehensive initiative called Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology
Pediatric Excellence) will build long-term capacity to treat and
dramatically improve the prognosis of thousands of children with cancer
and blood disorders in southern and eastern Africa.
In the United States, 80 percent of children with cancer survive. In
sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming majority of pediatric patients do
not survive. The mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 90
percent, meaning that thousands of children die from cancer across
Africa each year. This is in large part due to an inadequate healthcare
infrastructure and a significant lack of expert physicians and other
healthcare workers trained to treat children with cancer. The most
common types of childhood cancers are blood cancers, including leukemia
and lymphoma.
Global HOPE will partner with local Governments and Ministries of Health
to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric blood
disorders and cancer in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. The initiative will
also create significant clinical, educational and research capabilities.
Doctors, nurses and ancillary professionals will be recruited from
around the world to provide training to local healthcare professionals
and to begin treating children with blood disorders and cancer
immediately.
“This project is building on a solid foundation for pediatric cancer
treatment in Botswana that began with pediatric oncologists from Texas
Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers,” said His Excellency the
President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Republic
of Botswana. “The Global HOPE program will bring to Botswana the latest
bio-medical technologies and the potential to work with local
institutions such as the Botswana Innovation Hub and University of
Botswana to quickly increase the survival of children with cancer and
life-threatening blood disorders in Botswana and the region.”
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committing $50 million over five
years to fund the training of healthcare providers as well as clinical
infrastructure and operations. BIPAI will raise an additional $50
million for the initiative.
“We are eager to get started on this critical initiative to help
children with blood disorders and cancer. Working with our partners and
drawing on our expertise of building sustainable health systems in
underserved countries, we will help make a significant difference in the
outcomes for children while creating a blueprint for other countries to
follow,” said Giovanni
Caforio, M.D., chairman of the board of the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation and chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
“This initiative builds on 18 years of success of the Foundation’s
SECURE
THE FUTURE
®
program and will offer new hope to
families impacted by pediatric blood disorders and cancer.”
As public-private partnerships, the various governments will each play
an important role in developing the pediatric hematology-oncology
network, assisting with the training, technical assistance, logistics
and resources to support Global HOPE.
The Global HOPE initiative will train an estimated 4,800 healthcare
professionals from Botswana, Uganda, Malawi and other African countries,
including doctors and nurses specializing in pediatric
hematology-oncology and social workers. The program estimates that over
5,000 children will receive care in the first five years.
“With only five pediatric oncologists currently in the countries of
Botswana, Malawi and Uganda combined, there are simply not enough expert
doctors to treat all the children diagnosed with blood disorders and
cancer. We believe in these countries there are more than 11,000 new
cases annually of pediatric cancer and 40,000 new cases of serious,
life-threatening blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and
hemophilia. Because of these staggering numbers, more healthcare
providers with special expertise are urgently needed,” said David G.
Poplack, M.D., director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology
Centers and Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Baylor College of
Medicine. “Global HOPE will help build capacity in the region to
diagnose and care for children with blood disorders and cancer, offering
the potential for transformational change in survivorship for these
children.”
The Global HOPE initiative will be modeled on the work of the
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, BIPAI and the Governments of Botswana,
Uganda and Malawi, which created the largest pediatric HIV treatment
network in the world, leveraging existing experience, infrastructure,
and public/private partnerships created through the initiative. Since
2003, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and BIPAI have trained 52,000
healthcare professionals and currently provide care for nearly 300,000
children with HIV and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, lowering the
mortality rate for these children to 1.2 percent.
“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of pediatric
HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to the tremendous
support provided by the country governments, healthcare providers on the
ground and donors who have made our work possible,” said Mark W. Kline,
M.D., president and founder of BIPAI, physician-in-chief of Texas
Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor
College of Medicine. “We look forward to helping patients and their
families by embarking on this unchartered area of cancer care in Africa.
Working with our partners, we aim to build a self-sustaining
infrastructure that changes the tide of these childhood diseases in
sub-Saharan Africa.”
About the Republic of Botswana and the Ministry of Health and Wellness
Botswana is a country with two million inhabitants in southern Africa
with abundant and diverse natural resources. The official languages are
English and Setswana. Since independence in 1966, Botswana has been a
parliamentary republic; the chief of state and head of government is the
president. Botswana’s economy is a success story in southern Africa due
to the investment of the government in the education, health, clean
water and telecommunications sectors to create a better standard of
living for its citizens and to foster a conducive environment for free
enterprise to prosper.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness aims to improve the physical,
mental, and social well-being of every citizen of Botswana to fully
contribute to the development of Botswana through a healthy nation.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committed to improving the health
outcomes of populations disproportionately affected by serious diseases
by strengthening healthcare worker capacity, integrating medical care
and community-based supportive services, and addressing unmet medical
need. The Foundation engages partners to develop, execute, evaluate and
promote innovative programs to help patients with lung cancer and
removing barriers to accessing care in the United States, HIV and
comorbid diseases such as cervical and breast cancers and tuberculosis
in sub-Saharan Africa, hepatitis B and C in China and India and
veterans’ mental health and well-being in the U.S.
Since 1999, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE®
initiative has been working with partners in Africa to provide care and
support for communities affected by HIV, tuberculosis, women’s cancer
and most recently, lung cancer. Global HOPE will apply this same
transformational model to pediatric oncology and hematology in a number
of the same geographic areas.
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s
Hospital
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers (TXCH) is the largest
pediatric hematology-oncology program in the U.S., treating patients
from 35 states and 26 countries. TXCH performs advanced patient care,
cutting edge clinical and laboratory research and has largest training
program for pediatric hematology-oncology in the U.S. With a staff of
renowned experts, the centers have developed a wide array of programs
aimed at curing children with diagnoses ranging from the most common to
the very rare. The team of 186 faculty and nearly 1,000 staff have
pioneered many of the now standard treatments for pediatric cancer and
blood disorders. TXCH has a long-standing commitment to improving global
health. For more information, please visit txch.org.
Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at
Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI)
Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) is a non-profit
organization dedicated to providing pediatric and maternal health care
in resource limited settings. BIPAI medical teams offer free medical
care and medical education for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria,
malnutrition, obstetrics/gynecology, hematology/oncology and more.
Partnering with Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of
Medicine, BIPAI operates in 11 countries, caring for nearly 300,000
children and their families. Learn more at www.bipai.org.
Media: Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness Doreen Motshegwa, +267 73972 391 dfmotshegwa@gov.bw or Bristol-Myers Squibb Ken Dominski, +1 609-252-5251 ken.dominski@bms.com orLisa McCormick Lavery, +1 609-865-4014 lisa.mccormicklavery@bms.com or Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers - Global HOPE Christy Brunton, +1 281-684-3184 clbrunto@texaschildrens.org orCaroline Timm, +1 501-804-2608 octimm@texaschildrens.org or Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI) Dana Benson, +1 713-798-8267 benson@bcm.edu